Colloidal binders for monolithic castable refractories: A review

Abstract Bonding agents are a ubiquitous component of monolithic castable refractories that bind the refractory phases under service conditions and provide adequate drying, placement, and corrosion characteristics during application. A wide range of binders have been developed for monolithic castable refractories, ranging from established formulations to commercial products. Persistent effort in the development of these binders is aimed at tuning the properties of these bonding agents with respect to their particle size, chemistry, and other characteristics to get the desired packing, flow, drying, and sintering characteristics for various industrial applications. This paper is dedicated to a comprehensive review of various colloidal binders used as a bonding agent and their significant role in the development of desired properties for monolithic castable refractories. This paper classifies the bonding systems and discusses different colloidal binders, their colloidal chemistry, and their effect on the monolithic refractory castable systems, along with their merits and limitations, followed by concluding remarks and future prospects.